1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to endless conveyor systems, and particularly to such systems which travel into an automatic gun which has a rotating barrel cluster and supply ammunition thereto.
2. Prior Art
An endless conveyor system is shown by Kirkpatrick in U.S. Pat. No. 3,429,221, issued Feb. 25, 1969. Each conveyor element carries a single round of ammunition which is restrained in the element by external, fixed guide rails. Each element hands off its round to a sprocket which passes the round into the gun. Bangerter in U.S. Pat. No. 1,424,751, issued Aug. 8, 1922, shows a gun wherein a belt of ammunition in clips is passed in synchronism adjacent an endless belt of explosion chambers. The rounds are transferred from the clips into the chambers, and the chambers are subsequently passed into the gun. Patenaude et al in U.S. Pat. No. 3,834,272, issued Sept. 10, 1974, shows a belt of resilient links, or conveyor elements, which travels into the gun for supplying ammunition thereto. Each round is end-stripped by a respective gun bolt while the element is aligned with a respective barrel, loaded, locked, fired, unlocked, extracted and the empty case is returned to the original respective element by the bolt. The links are resilient and, therefore, the length of the conveyor when it is under tension is not constant. Dixon in U.S. Pat. No. 2,780,963, issued Feb. 12, 1957, shows a belt of cartridge clips, each of which is adapted to be end-loaded and end-stripped. The inner clip is made of resilient metal and a heavier metal onsert is provided around the clip. The onsert has resilient arms which, together with resilient arms of the inner clip, engage rings which intercouple adjacent clips. The links are resilient and, therefore, the length of the belt when it is under tension is not constant.
It is an object of this invention to provide an ammunition conveyor system which is of constant length when under tension and in which each conveyor element resiliently captures the cartridge case of a round of ammunition.
It is another object of this invention to provide such a system which is adapted to pass into an automatic gun having a rotating barrel cluster, and around said cluster, to permit the direct transfer of a round of ammunition from each element conveyor to a respective gun barrel, and the return of the fired case to that same conveyor element.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide such a system wherein each conveyor element may be both side-loaded and side-extracted and end-loaded and end-extracted.
It is even yet another object of this invention to provide such a system wherein each conveyor element is adapted to clear a centrifugally directed projection on a bolt as the respective round is stripped from the conveyor element by such bolt.
A feature of this invention is the provision of an ammunition conveyor system comprising a series of rigid U-shaped conveyor elements, each element having resilient means secured thereto for releasably retaining a cartridge case to said element, and a series of rigid links, each link respectively intercoupling two adjacent elements, said resilient means also serving to releasably capture the two intercoupling links to the respective element.